MiniMig+ (ACube)

[chaos]

Originally Posted by FOL

I like this, .
[ Show youtube player ]

Thanks That is a recording from AsmOne, but I already have it working on the DE1 board, and it will be ported to the original minimig soon

[FOL]

Originally Posted by chaos

Thanks That is a recording from AsmOne, but I already have it working on the DE1 board, and it will be ported to the original minimig soon

Is there any quick setup guides for FPGA Arcade?
Have one here, Mike was supposed to get back to me last year, but never did.
They were having trouble with the menu core, from what I remember then I heard nothing and still havent to this day.

Was hoping to show it at retro replay blackpool this year.


Any chance a mod can split topic, think we have drifted off topic.
Sorry.

[chaos]

FOL: sorry, don't know much about the FPGAArcade, all I know is it is about to be ready soon Best to ask Mike at fpgaarcade.com forum.

[FOL]

Originally Posted by chaos

FOL: sorry, don't know much about the FPGAArcade.

Niether do I thats the problem. ok, Ill email mike again.

[tolkien]

I dont understand to have AGA support and no '020 code...
A bit useless. What do you think?

[lolafg]

Originally Posted by chaos

Thanks That is a recording from AsmOne, but I already have it working on the DE1 board, and it will be ported to the original minimig soon

Superb boot menu

[turrican3]

For interesting me, he need to have the power of a 68040/50mhz but any improvement is welcome.

[lolafg]

Originally Posted by alexh

Yaqube even ;-)

My mistake : Yaqube of course , thanks Alexh

[Kitty]

chaos am I right in thinking there's a more up to date (2010) (non ARM version) core download on this page http://code.google.com/p/minimig/downloads/list

PGL100818_AltCoreSel.zip - PGL100818 Pic firmware supporting FYQ100818 FPGA core adding support for alternate core loading but without support for turbo keyboard switching - Oct 2010
PGL100818.zip- PGL100818 Pic firmware supporting FYQ100818 FPGA core - Oct 2010
FYQ100818.zip - YQ100818 FPGA core file - Aug 2010

NovaCoder where did amiga-news.de get their info for this new board version, correct me if I'm wrong but it's not even on the ACube Systems Website

the Minimig+ pictures are linked from http://www.soft3dev.net/hardware-images/
Seems all a bit April Fools to me, although I hope it's not

[chaos]

Originally Posted by tolkien

I dont understand to have AGA support and no '020 code...
A bit useless. What do you think?

I doubt they have an AGA core, they're just saying the board *could* run AGA core. AFAIK there is no publicly accessible / opensource AGA core. The only one is from Yaqube for the FPGA arcade, and it isn't certain when / if that will be available for others.

Originally Posted by Kitty

chaos am I right in thinking there's a more up to date (2010) (non ARM version) core download on this page http://code.google.com/p/minimig/downloads/list

PGL100818_AltCoreSel.zip - PGL100818 Pic firmware supporting FYQ100818 FPGA core adding support for alternate core loading but without support for turbo keyboard switching - Oct 2010
PGL100818.zip- PGL100818 Pic firmware supporting FYQ100818 FPGA core - Oct 2010
FYQ100818.zip - YQ100818 FPGA core file - Aug 2010

Looks like it Sorry, I'm not too familiar with the original PIC firmware and I never worked on it. The PIC is also a little too slow to support most of the advanced features of minimig, especially the hard disk support is much slower than with ARM, but it is available.

[jbenam]

Originally Posted by Kitty

this new board version, correct me if I'm wrong but it's not even on the ACube Systems Website

the Minimig+ pictures are linked from http://www.soft3dev.net/hardware-images/
Seems all a bit April Fools to me, although I hope it's not

As every good news site, they always link to the source - even if it's not too clear (it's on the left of every news)

http://amigaworld.net/modules/newbb/...order=0#732076

There you go, my friend

[FOL]

Originally Posted by chaos

The PIC is also a little too slow to support most of the advanced features of minimig, especially the hard disk support is much slower than with ARM, but it is available.

Incorrect, . Its only slow if you have a massive HDF image, .
Use 500MB and its very quick, you'll be saying "ARM, whats that".

[redblade]

So how does this work? You boot up the Kickstart ROM then use a AutoConfig Rom to patch all the calls to the dragonball chips? Is the Gfx Mode planar or Chunky? What's the sound like? 4 chans?

[JimDrew]

The FPGA Arcade Replay core for the Amiga emulation has full AGA support along with the 020 instruction set.

I am the North American distributor for this product, and I am helping to work on it.

[NovaCoder]

Originally Posted by JimDrew

The FPGA Arcade Replay core for the Amiga emulation has full AGA support along with the 020 instruction set.

But when will it be finished?

This (very interesting board) has been 'almost' retail ready for the past 4 years.....we're not getting any younger here

[JimDrew]

The boards themselves have been done and sitting around for a LONG time. Mike should be checking in one of the last versions of the Floppy/HD support this weekend. It looks like the last AGA timing bug has been fixed. It's been demo'd all over the world running various hardcore AGA demoscene stuff, so it's quite compatible for sure. So, it should not be long.

There are already numerous arcade game machines done and available for it, along with a VIC-20 emulator and a C64 emulator that is nearly completed. There are plans for an Atari ST emulator (which won't be much of a stretch with the 680x0 core already completed for the Amiga emulation).

[Amiga1992]

So, can you go now and buy an FPGA Arcade Replay board and then upgrade it with the AGA core when it comes out?
I saw a demo at Datastorm and it seemed pretty cool, but full of bugs.

[JimDrew]

ALL of the cores are just software that is uploaded to the board. So, updates are just a matter of copying the new core on to the SD card. You select the core you want to run using a built-in menu system.

The board has an open source library for its video, audio, etc. so anyone can port any existing FPGA project to the board. Several people have already ported their projects over to the board, giving us Atari 800 emulation among others.

[DyLucke]

Hmmmm, i guess i have to ask something.

For now i feel this Minimig+ is insufficient, it seems it could just perform like an average 030, plus, as Nova pointed if it's a mere 68000 core, it will lose the instructions needed for many AGA programs to run.

I have a question for experts here.

We have seen several attempts of implementation in the last years.
Many ideas... We even have seen the attempt to build new hardware from scratch.

We have concluded that actual hardware can't implement a "fast enough core" to effectivelly retire our old "fast" hardware.

But, what about using several cores?

I mean... What about a low-cost PPC as a CPU having two operating modes selected by user (native PPC and emulated 68K) and have audio and video emulated thru two different implementations over two different chips?

It's clear it would come with a more expensive price, but i'm not sure it would be more expensive than a full-fledged A1200 including 060 board and such.

I guess there won't be problems to implement AGA (with extra modes and features) over some FPGAs, and audio would be much easier... About the CPU core, i guess the 020 core included in UAE could do the task... And could run quite well on a low-cost PPC if selected.

However, as i'm not an expert, i don't know if this idea has serious drawbacks.

Cheers.

[chaos]

DyLucke:

there are no hardware limitations making a soft-core 68k CPU that would at least approach a real 060 speed, but someone would have to write it, which is quite a lot of work for a single person.

Also, I think using PPC CPUs nowadays is not really a good idea for many reasons, especially the price.

I believe the best way forward are the new 'SOC' FPGAs, with a fast hard-IP ARM core, which should be capable enough to run a software emulation of a 68k CPU, the custom chips can than be implemented in the FPGA.